2006 Vidal Icewine -- first racking
The last batch of Icewine (Vidal from Watson's Farm) was racked of the gross lees tonight. It went from the 23L fermentation carboy to a 18.9L carboy where it's topped-up and will spend the next few months settling. About 1L of leftover wine went into a milk jar — I'll use this for topping up at my next racking.
I also added 50ppm SO2 (17.5ml of 10% solution) to reduce oxidation and protect the wine a little.
My first impressions are vary favourable: the nose is very fruity (peaches, pear, pineapple and lychee), with very little of the caramel / crème brûlée that I got last year. The smell of booze is also less obvious.
In the mouth it still has a *little* post-fermentation bitterness, but it's very slight and much better than it had last year at this time. I expect it to completely fall-out by the time it goes into bottle.
The viscosity is nice, but it could use a little more acid to add crispness to the finish. I typically like to make acid additions before I start fermentation, but I didn't know how this wine would taste after fermentation, so I'll have to add it in now. I think 2 - 3 g/l should do the trick.